2023-01-18

A response to jecxjo

gemini://gemini.sh0.xyz/log/2023-01-14_when_good_work_life_kills_motivation.gmi

Above is the post for those that want to read what prompted this.

I guess my response to it will be pretty short and to the point, in stating this little idea I've come up with.

Laws, in terms of the sciences, are loosely defined as mathematically provable and consistent statements of our reality.

So without further ado, allow me to introduce:

Donut's Law of Technological Investment

" For every unit of time you spend being professionally involved in technology, regardless of fulfillment, there is a proportional and direct decrease in the amount of your remaining lifetime which can be invested in the same activity beyond the context of being paid. "

That about sums up my thoughts. Some of my most passionate times with technology were, like jecxjo has experienced, times when my day job sucked the most.

Go on.

I can sum up my decline in "fun tech" stuff over the last few years just like I would my jobs.

I used to voraciously code after work; because I drove a truck. In fact, I found time to somehow help work on a startup AND spend up to 14 hours a day in the immediate vicinity of a steering wheel. This is also when Fedicraft was born, the minecraft server I still host to this day.

Then I used to somewhat less voraciously code at all; because I spent a lot of time in Python and SQL at the next job. I still did it a bit, but progress slowed drastically.

And now, I code barely at all without being paid for it, and when I do it's because I am quite literally forcing myself to keep a sharp edge on related skills regardless of the time I spend in Powershell at work.

Get to the point you deluded toroidal pastry

All three of these jobs I enjoyed to some degree. But I have noticed that both the level of professional progress and the proximity to technology increasing has led to a requisite decrease in my desire to do _any_ of it away from my work desk.

At this juncture it's more a question of whether I kill my darlings and eschew doing any such work at all beyond what I'm paid (a sad blow to me considering I've always wanted to get more involved in open-source stuff but rarely find the motivation);

or perhaps alternatively, I pivot far enough out and away from technology that I'm able to enjoy the hobby I turned into a career again.

It's a weird time to be in technology in any aspect, that's for sure.

Part of me wishes I was just sitting at a desk with a typewriter doing old-timey invoices and shipping stuff to who-knows-where. That kind of janky data entry (albeit on a computer) was an enjoyable job at the time, although taxing in other ways. Seems like a lifetime ago, and perhaps at least in my soul it was.

Contact me

Email: wholesomedonut(at)ctrl-c(d0t)club .